Hi John, Weren't many of the great philosophers believers? I may be wrong, but that is what I seem to remember. Many of the great physicists, chemists, mathematicians were believers as well. How do you rectify that with the irrationality of theism?
Just curious. Mark On Jan 15, 2010, at 10:10:39 AM, "John Carl" <[email protected]> wrote: From: "John Carl" <[email protected]> Subject: Re: [MD] Are theists irrational? Date: January 15, 2010 10:10:39 AM PST To: [email protected] Steve, Good question. My opinion is that not all theists are irrational, though most probably are, going on the evidence. But taking a postulate as fundamental is a big no-no in metaphysical speculation. You ask how we can tell the difference between the rational theist and the non-rational and I'd say the difference is right at the point of being willing to be objective about one's beliefs. John the anti-postulator On Fri, Jan 15, 2010 at 9:13 AM, Steven Peterson <[email protected]>wrote: > Hi all, > > Can an MOQer make the claim that theists are irrational? > > Jeffrey Stout from "Rorty on Religion and Politics: > "Because Rorty and I have both been persuaded by our pragmatist > forebears to treat rationality as a more permissive and > context-sensitive notion than Victorian critics of religious > superstition took it to be, we are inclined to agree with William > James that some theists might well be rationally entitled to their > religious commitments. Thus we are not disposed to join Sam Harris and > Peter Singer in impugning the rationality of theists en masse. Like > Harris and Singer, we would like to say that what worries us about > militant Islamic theocracy, the new religious right, and church > opposition to same-sex marriage, but we prefer to do so without using > the concept of rationality as a club." > > Why does pragmatism lead Stout and Rorty to want to drop rationality > as a way of distinguishing believers from nonbelievers? > > If "some theists [and presumably then not others] might well be > rationally entitled to their religious commitments," how do we tell > which ones are rationally entitled and which ones are not? > > Best, > Steve > Moq_Discuss mailing list > Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. > http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org > Archives: > http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ > http://moq.org.uk/pipermail/moq_discuss_archive/ > Moq_Discuss mailing list Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org Archives: http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ http://moq.org.uk/pipermail/moq_discuss_archive/ Moq_Discuss mailing list Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org Archives: http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ http://moq.org.uk/pipermail/moq_discuss_archive/
